# utm_medium — what it names and how to strip it

- Canonical: https://linkclean.app/trackers/utm-medium/
- Updated: 2026-07-22
- Author: Ken Tominaga (https://ken0nek.com)
- Get the app: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/linkclean/id6758604043

Parameter: `utm_medium` · Category: UTM campaign tags · Vendor: Google Analytics (originally Urchin)

> utm_medium names the marketing **channel** — “email”, “social”, “cpc” (paid search), “organic”. Pairs with utm_source to answer “which channel?”. Removing it never breaks the link.

## Pairing utm_medium with utm_source

utm_source names *where* the click came from (the specific publisher, list, or vendor); utm_medium names *how* — the channel class. Together they answer the analyst's first question: “did this campaign land via email, via social, via paid search, or via something else?”.

Standard utm_medium values are conventional but not enforced: email, social, cpc (cost-per-click paid search), display, affiliate, organic, referral. The values are whatever the publisher decides; Google Analytics treats them as opaque strings.

## Channel-level attribution, and what forwarding leaks

Same blast radius as utm_source. Forwarding a link with utm_medium=email attached tells every analytics tool downstream that the click came in via email — even if your friend clicked it from a chat app. The publisher's report counts your forward as another email-channel click.

Not personally identifying on its own. Like utm_source, utm_medium describes the *channel*, not the person. Still, the privacy-safe default is to forward the destination, not the marketing metadata.

## How LinkClean removes it

utm_medium ships default-on in LinkClean alongside the rest of the utm_* family. Stripped on every host; no toggle, no per-site exception. Like the other utm_* tags, it's vendor-specific enough that a legitimate URL never uses it for anything but Google Analytics attribution.

## Example

Looks like this in a URL: `https://example.com/article?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=spring-launch`

After LinkClean: `https://example.com/article`

## Frequently asked

**What's the difference between utm_source and utm_medium?**

utm_source is the specific origin (“newsletter”, “acme-blog”, “twitter”); utm_medium is the channel class (“email”, “social”, “referral”). One says “who”, the other says “how”.

**Does removing utm_medium break the link?**

No. Like the rest of the utm_* family, the destination page never reads it — only analytics scripts running on the page after it loads.

**Are there standard values for utm_medium?**

By convention: email, social, cpc, display, affiliate, organic, referral. Google Analytics treats them as opaque strings, so publishers can use anything they like — which is also why the values you see in the wild are a mess.

**Why strip utm_medium if it doesn't identify me?**

Because it broadcasts marketing metadata your sender embedded for their own analytics — it shouldn't ride along when you share the link onward. Same reasoning as stripping utm_source.


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